Madeline Kochen named director of new public interest law programs

STANFORD -- Stanford Law School has created a new full-time position of
Director of Public Interest Law Programs and named attorney Madeline Kochen
to the post.

Public interest law includes legal aid to the poor, government service,
and work for nonprofit organizations like those concerned with civil rights,
the environment, children or the elderly.

"This new position symbolizes Stanford Law School's commitment to public
service," said Paul Brest, dean of the school. "Madeline's leadership will
help us realize that commitment."

Kochen, who was selected after a nationwide search, has 14 years public
interest experience in the state of New York.

While a student at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law,
she interned for two years with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Reproductive Freedom Project. Her first post after graduating with a J.D. in
1981 was with the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, doing criminal appeals
for indigent defendants.

During this period she also passed the New York State bar examination and
was admitted to practice in various courts up to and including the U.S.
Supreme Court.

Kochen worked for five years (1983-88) with the New York Civil Liberties
Union, initially as a staff attorney and legislative counsel, and later as
the founder and director of the NYCLU Women's Rights/Reproductive Rights
Project.

In 1988, Kochen was awarded a Charles H. Revson Fellowship for the Future
of the City of New York. As a Revson fellow, she was able to pursue studies
at Columbia University in philosophy, sociology and religion, while
participating in a weekly seminar on inner-city problems and solutions.

From 1989 to 1992, Kochen was the law assistant to Acting Justice Elliott
Wilk of the New York Supreme Court. For the past year, she has been
practicing law while conducting scholarly research on historical and
institutional aspects of legal bondage.

She has a number of publications to her credit, including two page-one
articles in the New York Law Journal. The first, "Constitutional Implications
of New York's 'Get' Statute," appeared Oct. 17, 1983, and the second, "A
Review of New York State Law Affecting Name Changes," on Oct. 3, 1985.

She is co-author of a chapter, "A Woman's Right to Control her Body," in
the book, The Rights of Women.

Kochen has had an impact on the laws of her native state. A bill she
drafted passed the New York legislature as the Marital Name Change Law
(Chapter 583 of the Laws of 1985), which enables people getting married to
keep or change their names as they see fit. She previously co- authored the
state's Personal Privacy Protection Law (Chapter 652 of the Laws of 1983),
which regulates government record keeping to protect individual privacy
rights.

At Stanford, Kochen will direct the Law School's public interest law
programs, which include career counseling for students considering public
interest careers and educational programs for all students on the range of
opportunities for public service. She looks forward, she says, "to working
with students, faculty, and the public interest community to create new
opportunities and programs as well."

Kochen speaks enthusiastically of her new responsibilities. "I see myself
as an advocate for public interest law both within the law school, and also
on its behalf outside the university.

"It is my hope and goal to inspire students to consider public interest
law careers, to support and guide students who have already identified this
option, and to cultivate new opportunities for students to gain experience
and pursue careers in the field of public interest law."

The date she officially joined the Stanford Law School staff was Aug. 1,
1994. In addition to being director of Public Interest Law Programs, she
holds the title of Assistant Director of the school's Office of Career
Services.

Kochen was born March 14, 1957, in Rochester, N.Y,. and received her
diploma from Scarsdale High School in 1975. She entered Yeshiva University in
New York City a year early, following her junior year of high school.

As a Yeshiva undergraduate, she majored in Judaic Studies, won a Judaic
Studies Award, and served as Jewish Law Editor of the student newspaper. She
received her bachelor's degree in January 1978 magna cum laude.

Kochen speaks Hebrew fluently. Before law school she pursued in-depth
study of Talmudic law in Israel, and later worked as a law student intern for
a lawyer in Tel Aviv.

Kochen is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Kochen of Mamaroneck, N.Y.

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